Heavy snow — possibly 4 inches — forecast for Lincoln area

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for late Saturday and early Sunday afternoon covering Lincoln, much of eastern Nebraska and southwestern Iowa.

As of Friday evening, officials from the National Weather Service office in Valley were projecting heavy snow, with 3 to 4 inches possible and wind gusts topping 45 mph.

“It’s the visibility that will be reduced significantly that’s going to create quite a bit of a problem,” said NWS meteorologist Becky Kern. ”(Snow) in the 4-inch range and then you throw in 25-to-35 mile per hour winds.”

The storm system is expected to move into the Lincoln area Saturday evening, but conditions will become worse when rain turns to snow after midnight. Temperatures are forecast to fall to around 27 degrees, and Sunday’s high will be near 30.

“It will be raining on Saturday evening,” Kern said. “That rain will transition over to snow, so the snow will initially be wet and heavy and could potentially stick to surfaces like roads, power lines or trees. Once that wind picks up, if those trees and power lines are loaded with a layer of snow that’s not blowing off, we could have power issues.”

Lincoln officials have not announced any road treatment or snow removal plans, but will have increased staff on standby.

“To anyone with Sunday travel plans, there are going to be times when that visibility is down to zero,” Kern said. “If people are able to alter their plans for Sunday, we strongly recommend that.”

According to Kern, the worst of the weather will likely come during the 12-hour window between 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday.